It turns out that Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson has agreed to comply with his House subpoena and arrive on Capitol Hill for his testimony at the appointed time after all. However, his activities will be limited to warming his chair seat, swearing to tell the truth, leaning over to whisper to his attorney, and asserting his Fifth Amendment rights.
He refuses to answer questions about the Christopher Steele anti-Trump “dossier” or anything else, because doing so may incriminate him.
The indignant statement from his lawyer reads as follows: “Compelling Glenn Simpson to appear for a confidential deposition after he has stated his intention to invoke his constitutional right not to testify reflects the worst practices of past congressional investigations and reinforces that this is a political exercise, not a serious inquiry.”
Really? So Congress is supposed to let him conveniently plead the Fifth with a statement from his lawyer, or over the phone, or through a tweet, so he doesn’t have to make his way through heavy DC traffic and pay for parking to show up at the hearing? Simpson’s lawyer must be aware that the whole “dossier” thing was a political fraud, as we are finally in the last stages of confirming beyond reasonable doubt. The least Simpson can do is show up.
Congress has been waiting literally for years now for answers about the dossier, which was funded by Hillary Clinton and the DNC through the law firm Perkins Coie, which paid Fusion GPS, which paid British ex-spy Steele, who apparently paid Russian sources for any unsubstantiated rumor they could come up with on then-candidate Donald Trump. Steele passed along various versions of the dossier that were flying around Washington in the summer and fall of 2016. We know it was the dossier, not the set-up meetings with George Papadopoulos, that the FBI used in 2016 to obtain a FISA surveillance warrant to spy on Trump campaign associate Carter Page.
As many accounts fail to explain, that was the opposition’s “way in,” as it enabled the FBI to tap the archives of Page’s communications with Trump's campaign, and, in turn, all of their contacts, past, present and future. It’s why, when Trump tweeted about his campaign being “wiretapped,” he was exactly right.
In news breaking late Monday, Carter Page has filed a lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee and Perkins Coie. Good for him. His Fourth Amendment rights were massively violated with a made-up accusation that he was a Russian agent (!), leading to months of illegal government surveillance. Nothing whatsoever was found to implicate him in any wrongdoing. I hope he has very aggressive lawyers. This should never happen in America, ever again.
In other breaking news, former deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe (boss of lawyer Lisa Page), whom we knew was under criminal investigation for leaking and lying to investigators about it, is also being investigated specifically for comments about illegal leaks pertaining to former national security advisor Gen. Michael Flynn, whose name was caught up in the surveillance of Carter Page and unmasked. According to John Solomon at THE HILL, the FBI posted information about this in “The Vault,” their public information site. In other “leaking” news, Solomon reports that the Senate intelligence security chief has pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with the media. At last, we’re getting some answers abosut the massive leaking that was going on before and (especially) after Trump’s election.
According to FOX News’ Catherine Herridge, there are more depositions coming up this week, including additional testimony scheduled for Thursday from former FBI general counsel James Baker, whose previous testimony offered some surprising revelations about Rod Rosenstein’s “serious” talk about wearing a wire and invoking the 25th Amendment to unseat President Trump. Baker also said the FBI had handled the Hillary investigation and the Trump/Russia probe in an “abnormal fashion” and that they’d been given information by Michael Sussman, one of the lawyers for Perkins Coie, the politically-connected firm that had trafficked in the dossier. Baker is coming in for a second session simply because the committee ran out of time with the first one.
Nellie Ohr is scheduled to testify this week as well, on Friday. Wife of Bruce Ohr, who was at that time the fourth in line of authority at the Justice Department, she was the Russia specialist working for Glenn Simpson at Fusion GPS who passed Steele’s dossier to her husband after Steele had been determined by the FBI to be a non-reliable source (he was talking to the media) and let go from the FBI. Her husband became the unofficial backchannel for getting Steele’s unverified material to the FBI, even though his work there involved nothing about Trump or Russia. Like Baker, she's appearing voluntarily, and the interview will be under oath and transcribed.
Simpson’s lawyer complained that he “has already voluntarily testified for over 25 hours before three congressional committees." But at the time he testified, the committees didn’t have complete information about the political origins of the dossier; what they’ve learned since then has sparked more questions. Also, this lawyer conveniently fails to address a very important thing: Simpson’s earlier testimony doesn’t line up with Bruce Ohr’s emails when it comes to the timeline for their contacts. He testified that they didn’t have contact until after the election. Ohr’s emails refer to contacts well before the election. No wonder Simpson prefers to quit now and not say any more.
It may come to that for deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, too. Negotiations fell through for him to come in voluntarily and talk with congressional committees last week, so now House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia is considering a subpoena for him. “Considering”? How is that even up for debate? As the acting head of the agency (with AG Sessions recused), Rosenstein has an obligation to be forthcoming --- under oath if asked --- that was agreed to when he was confirmed by the Senate. (Incidentally, he’s supposed to be equally forthcoming with the President.) His not-under-oath denials conflict with the sworn testimony from Baker about “seriously” talking in May of 2017 about wearing a wire to secretly record the President and trying to enlist Cabinet members to remove Trump from office. Kind of a big deal.
Subpoena him already, so he has the same opportunity his friends have to plead the Fifth.
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Comments 1-10 of 10
joseph orsini
10/17/2018 12:21 PM
BORDER SECURITY!!
How about if we [the USA] were to RENT 100 yards of Mexico all along the mutual border, with the provision that we could use it as we wish, as long as we made no permanent changes [e.g. a concrete wall]. So - we put in temporary fences and heavily man it, thereby stopping illegal migrants BEFORE they set foot on US soil.
Anne Foster
10/17/2018 09:47 AM
Governor, Thank you for writing these newsletters. At last, a source of true news on the internet! God bless!
Kate Pulse
10/16/2018 05:48 PM
Is it possible for you to convince President Trump to do e-verify and to just stop all people at the border and let the Supreme Court sort it out later. We must stop all incoming illegals and asylum seekers. No chain migration. It starts with him. I and many others are starting to see that he’s not using his authority when he should be. Thank you.
Donna Kleister
10/16/2018 03:08 PM
It is becoming more and more apparent that we must vote the RED wave in November. The evidence is mounting that the Trump-Russion Collusion is nothing but a diversionary tactic. The collusion ( dare I say sedition or treason) was by the hands of HRC, Clinton foundation, Fusion GPS, and the corrupt players at the DOJ/FBI. Delay tactics are in place to get past the 11/6/18 election. If the RED waves hits - then and only then will there be a promise of prosecution for this " bloodless coup" against a duly elected POTUS. If the blue wave hits - forget about any chance of these corrupted individuals to be prosecuted. When BHO first came on scene, my comment to my husband was that BHO will get in because a man of color will win over a female first and foremost-- oh my that's what happened. I watched and listened and held the impression that BHO was a planted person with backing of outside sources ( George Soros, Muslin Brotherhood, etc...) whose sole purpose was to bring down the US from inside. The global elite who do not want Americe to be a superpower. People thought I was a crazy conspiration theorist. No one really knows BHO's background. He speaks with claim soothing voice and appears to be rational but watch what he does behind the scenes. Economy in the tank, identity politics ( race, gender,economic etc...) and increasing aggitation was stirred by his careless and factless assuptions before gathering the facts ( Ferguson, Baltimore, Florida), disrrupted and almost took over the health care system for power/control reasons, made a deal with the #1 terrorist nation - to send $1.8+ billion to Iran. REALLY??? Let's wake up folks!!!. In exchange for traitor, Beau Burgdahl, BHO releases 5 terrorists that went right back to the frontlines. He also telegraphed every move that the US was going to make to withdrawal from Iraq and we wonder why /how ISIS became do powerful so quickly. Had HRC been elected this all would have been swept under the rug and we would not know the difference other than life as we know as American would have dracticly taken a turn for the worse. Now more than ever it is important to keep the Republican in power in the house and senate and to finally clean up this highly corrupted swamp in DC- holding this traitorous and corrupt individuals accountable....include Mueller and Rosenstein as well. We need to fix our education system as we are not teaching appropriate civics / history concepts to keep are our country great and strong. Sad state of affairs. For all you " feminists" out there, have you not caught on that the BLUE party does not give a rip about women.... we are pawns in a power game and will be used and discarded at will. The woman's march and feminist movement does not represent me in any way shape or form and never will. The critical key is to know whose you are and who you are - stand on moral princples that come from a higher power than government. 2 Chronicles 7:14 "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." So our government has managed to take God out of the public square and demean and persecute people of faith...quite opposite of our founding fathers reciognition of Devine wisdom - who experienced severe tyranny of the ruling elite. They so valued the importance of individual freedmon within a moral framework that they paid a high price for it....same goes for the men and woman of our armed services today. It is high time to recognize the Source of moral principles and stand strong in prayer for our beloved nation. In God we trust....
Grace Chang
10/16/2018 02:39 PM
Why there is no way to hold those rogues legally liable to have their punishments? If they are evil and even violent the good people cannot do anything but just talk and talk, and some day even the right to talk will be taken away like in a socialist state.
Amelia Little
10/16/2018 02:36 PM
So, let's just continue to tie up the courts with appealing a decision--of course, people have the right to appeal, but it just needs to be over and done with. The porn lawyer looks worse and worse with each passing day, and perhaps it would be beneficial to all for news outlets to just drop him as the latest bombshell report, help him slide right back into the woodwork into oblivion.
Don't forget to cry for simpson--how "HORRIBLE" that he would have to submit to an investigation inquiry. After all, he has already said (or, his lawyers have) that he will plead the 5th. I wonder what makes them think he is above all the rest of us. I don't think we would get away with--gee, don't subpoena me, I'm not gonna tell you anything!!! Since he is no better than us, he should be jailed on contempt of court (or investigation) AND be considered guilty because taking the 5th means--you know if you talk, you will be found guilty of something related to the investigation. Heck, it seems Paul Manafort was jailed, in isolation for 23 hours a day for heck of a lot less. Of course, the biggest difference is--Democrat or Republican, working for hilary and the DNC (and FBI and DOJ and the then current President) or working for Donald Trump's Presidential campaign--and, let's not worry about jailing Manafort for something that had NOTHING to do with President Trump, let alone his campaign or the Russians!!!
Just read where a female GOP candidate received a rape and death threat. (Not on an msm outlet, of course.) Now, it is being investigated, but the Lt Gov of VT made such a STUPID statement. Agreeing it should be investigated, but blaming President Trump for inciting this kind of behaviour? Perhaps msm doesn't report on "newsworthy" Democrats like booker, good ol' maxine, holder and others for their speaking to mobs--oh, excuse me--groups of people or on tv telling people they need to be up in the faces of Republicans, kick them (holder.) good ol' maxine says she isn't inciting violence--that confirms her stupidity or that she has drank too much of the kookaide. None of her advisers have mentioned that, the left mobs have already showed a propensity toward violence, it doesn't take much for even milder crowds to see how that works, and for them to proceed on to actually hurting someone. Anyway, I wonder how many of the VT citizens think their Lt Gov doesn't know what he is talking about. Oh, and the article ends with it being pointed out that, sometimes things like this, after investigation, have been shown to be hoaxes. And, yes, there have been. BUT, hey!!!! Whatever the heck happened to "she's a woman, she MUST be BELIEVED?" Oh, that's right, we are talking about someone in the GOP. Doesn't apply here, you know.
Gil Bellamy
10/16/2018 02:33 PM
As a senior citizen even I am too young to remember personally the McCarthy hearings. But, I do know that Senator McCarthy warned that Communists had infiltrated our federal government. In short, he warned about the Deep State even though he never used that term. Now, we find out that a guy who voted for the Communist Party head in one of our Presidential elections ended up being the head of the CIA! McCarthy was correct! You should write so. Or, at least, quit ridiculing Senator McCarty by denigrating McCarthyism.
Bob
10/16/2018 01:13 PM
President Trump should return the
Black Hills to the Indian Nation !!
The US government broke the treaty
made years ago !!
Anne Turner
10/16/2018 11:54 AM
I am surprised you did not comment on the Saudi Arabian killing. It is becoming apparent that the Saudis killed the reporter. Since it happened in their embassy, they must take responsibility. I know the President is caught between a rock and a hard place, but if it is confirmed by preponderance of evidence that this was done by the Saudi government, the President must severely punish that country, first because it is the right thing to do, and secondly because the Saudis and the rest of the world would lose respect and would know that they can get away with this in the future. Yes, there are some bad consequence for us, but sometimes you have to do the right thing and take your lumps.
It is looking more and more like the Dems will prevail in November. We cannot stick our head in the sand. This will result in nothing but impeachment proceedings for the next two years. This administration will be able to accomplish nothing.
As I understand it the Tribes determine for themselves tribal heritage. There is no way EW would qualify. Can you imagine what would happen if a GOP candidate made such claims? Double standards apply. What is good for Dems is not acceptable for the GOP. Clinton, Johnson, and Kennedy could out do Mr. Trump on the sleaze scale so far as women are concerned. Let’s get real.
Stephen Russell
10/16/2018 11:30 AM
Can we still prosecute?? Tire of these DC Games & worry so we Vote in New Blood BUT same DC apparatus in place to keep Status Quo. remedy this